


Visiting Hours

by fuzzballsheltiepants



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: F/M, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 07:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14303991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuzzballsheltiepants/pseuds/fuzzballsheltiepants
Summary: Neil and Andrew visit Dan and Matt in the hospital.  Sweet mayhem ensues.





	Visiting Hours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tntwme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tntwme/gifts).



> This was inspired by an amazing post by @demisexualnjosten on Tumblr (https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/demisexualnjosten/158178639329#_=_). Tooth rotting fluff, a rarity from me.

Neil was pretty certain if he had to sit in the waiting room for one more minute he was going to scream.  Or Andrew would strangle him; it was kind of a tossup, judging by the glare Andrew was giving his jiggling leg.  Though if he were to have his windpipe crushed, the hospital was a good place for it.  
  
“Junkie.  She’s fine.  She had a fucking baby.  It happens every day.”  
  
“We’ve been here an hour and they haven’t let us see them yet.  It’s not fine.”  
  
“Even Dan needs to sleep sometimes.”  He pulled out his wallet.  “Go get us some ice cream.”  
  
“Seriously?  How can you think of sweets right now?”  
  
“You’re the one who dragged my ass three thousand miles here, I had zero need to see the tiny wrinkled space creature that Dan just squeezed out.  You might as well keep your hyperactive self busy.”  
  
Neil sighed and took the five Andrew handed him. He followed the signs for the cafeteria through the maze of hallways and poked around for a while, looking for something he could tolerate eating.  Sorting through the variety of tiny ice creams in the freezer section, surprised by the premium brands he recognized from their own kitchen, he grabbed a chocolate fudge brownie for Andrew, a strawberry cheesecake for himself, and a chocolate chip cookie dough for Matt, who he was sure would be starving.  A couple of spoons and a handful of napkins later and he was in the checkout line.  The five Andrew gave him wasn’t quite enough, but he had just enough cash to make up the difference and headed out with his stack.  
  
Andrew had texted him during checkout and he precariously balanced everything to check it.  _Rm 304_.  Sighing, he headed towards the elevator.  He exited on the third floor and followed the arrow on the sign toward the block of rooms that included 304, only to find himself walking straight into a small group of people with cameras.  Ducking his head, he tried to slip by but froze when he heard a voice exclaim, “Neil Josten!  You weren’t on the list!”  
  
“List?” he asked, confused. The woman grabbed his sleeve.  
  
“It must have been an oversight.”  She tsked as she took in his outfit.  “They were supposed to tell you to wear your jersey.  Oh well.”    
  
“Um,” he started, but she was already dragging him down to the next room, one of the cameramen walking backwards in front of them.   
  
“Oh, Zoya will be so happy!  She was so disappointed there weren’t any exy players today.”  
  
She half-shoved him into a room with balloons and flowers and stuffed animals all over the place.  On one side of the room was a tall man in a Carolina Panther’s jersey chatting animatedly to two girls in hospital beds.  On the other side was one empty but rumpled bed and two small girls wedged into the other.  One of the girls was wearing a bright orange PSU jersey, and as he was herded closer he realized it was his old one.  The other was wearing a deep blue Portland Barracudas one with 03 on the front.  
  
He turned to tell the woman that there had been a mistake but the loud squeal emanating from the bed stopped him.  Turning back, he gave a sheepish smile to the girl wearing his jersey and a blinding grin.  “Hi.”  
  
“My dad is never going to believe this!  Haley, that’s Neil Josten.”  The other girl looked at him, unimpressed, and the speaker, Zoya he presumed, rolled her eyes and pointed at her own chest.  “The Neil Josten.  He won two championships for PSU.  Starting striker for the Barracudas, won rookie of the year two years ago.  You’re wearing his teammate’s jersey.”  She looked up at Neil.  “Ignore her.”  
  
He laughed and sidled closer.  “You must be a big exy fan.”  
  
“The biggest!  I’m a striker on my little league team.  Well, I was.  Not anymore.”  Her face fell.  
  
“What happened?”  
  
“She was in a car accident,” the other girl said.    
  
“That sucks.”  
  
“I broke my pelvis,” Zoya said, all the buzz gone out of her.    
  
“That doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to play down the road.  I’ve broken lots of bones, they heal.”  
  
Zoya perked right up.  “You think?”  
  
Neil shrugged.  “If you listen to your doctors.  What did they say?”  
  
She crossed her arms.  “They don’t care if I can play again.  They said I should be thankful I’ll be able to walk again.”  
  
“Yeah, doctors can be like that.  They don’t understand how important exy is.”  
  
The other girl, Haley, was eyeing the ice cream.  “Is that for us?”  
  
“Oh.  Um.  Yeah, of course.  Which flavor do you want?”  
  
“Strawberry cheesecake,” she said promptly.  He handed it to her with a spoon and looked to Zoya.    
  
“Cookie dough.”  He passed that one off, and the girls dug in.    
  
“Mmm, I haven’t had ice cream in weeks,” Haley said.  “I had heart surgery.  I’m going home tomorrow, but Zoya has to stay here and I don’t think that’s fair.”  
  
Neil’s phone buzzed and he pulled it out.  _Did you get murdered_ , from Andrew.  “Well, it was nice to meet you both,” Neil said, starting to back towards the door.    
  
“You’re leaving already?” Zoya asked, her ice cream-covered lips trembling.  
  
“I need to go visit my friend.”  
  
“Will you come back?” asked Haley.  “There’s still a couple hours left of visiting hours.”  
  
“Sure,” Neil said, not knowing why.  He made his escape to the other girls asking the football player if he brought them snacks.  
  
*****  
  
A frazzled-looking Neil appeared just in time to prevent Andrew from starting to roam the halls in search of his dismembered corpse.  He handed Andrew his ice cream and a spoon and greeted Matt with a hug and Dan with a kiss on the cheek.  Dan was holding her tiny sleeping creature and looking exhausted and triumphant; Neil was appropriately horrified at the fact that actual newborns look nothing like babies on TV, but was able to smooth his expression before the proud parents noticed.  He had managed to miss the whole breast-feeding part that Andrew had walked into; he planned to ensure Neil made that up to him later.  
  
Neil sat and made small talk while Andrew ate his ice cream, but he seemed distracted.  When Dan started to nod off after a few minutes, Matt smiled apologetically as he plucked his daughter out of Dan’s loosening arms.  “Sorry about that, she’s been up every couple hours to feed Ava.”  
  
“It’s fine,” Neil said, glancing at the door.  “Hey, do you want me to get you something?  You’ve been here all night too.”    
  
Matt shrugged.  “I wouldn’t say no to an ice cream myself.”  
  
Neil turned to Andrew.  “Do you have any more cash?”  
  
“Just a fifty,” Andrew said, opening his wallet.  “I always forget how expensive stuff is at hospitals.”  
  
“That’s perfect, thanks,” Neil said, snagging the bill and leaving.  
  
Matt looked at Andrew.  “Does he seem weird to you?”  
  
“It’s Neil.  I’ve lived with him for years and he still seems weird.”  
  
“Weirder than normal.”  
  
Andrew hummed noncommittally.  Matt was right, of course, but Andrew couldn’t put his finger on it.  They talked about movies for a while; well, Matt talked and Andrew sort of listened, all the while wondering where the fuck Neil had wandered off to.  Then the baby woke up and started to fuss and Matt stared down at her in sheer panic.  
  
“It needs to be changed,” Andrew said flatly.  
  
“Right, right.”  Matt set her down on the changing table and started to unwrap her.  Andrew sighed and tugged a diaper out of the box and handed it to him, then flipped open the top of the wipes.  Matt’s huge hands were trembling as he delicately undid her clothing and fumbled the diaper off.  He snagged a wipe and started to clean her.    
  
“Wrong direction,” Andrew said, and Matt looked at him blankly.  “Front to back.”  
  
With a pinched look, Matt did as Andrew instructed then wrapped her back up.  She promptly wiggled free and started to fuss again.  Andrew sighed.  “Here,” he said, scooping the tiny thing up.  Matt reached out in alarm and Andrew glared him into stillness while laying the swaddling cloth out properly.  “You need to get it tighter than you think you do.”  A few deft movements and she was snugly bundled and quieting down.  Matt picked her up again and looked from Andrew to her in some sort of shock.  
  
“What the fuck?”  
  
Andrew shrugged.  “Foster care.”  It was enough of an answer.   
  
Neil walked in before Matt sorted his expression out.  “What’s going on?”  
  
“Did you know he was some sort of baby-wrangling genius?” Matt asked.  
  
Neil laughed.  “For some reason that doesn’t surprise me,” he said, handing Matt a cup of cookie dough.  “I’ll be back in a little bit.”  
  
He disappeared again.  Matt and Andrew exchanged looks and Andrew got up and poked his head out into the hallway.  No sign of the junkie, so Andrew picked a direction and walked.  He had nearly lapped the floor when he saw a semicircle of people gathered around the door to one of the rooms in the Pediatric ICU wing.  Sighing, he joined the throng, somehow knowing what he was going to find.  
  
Neil was in there, handing ice cream out to the kids inside while two big men in jerseys eyed him in irritation.  One of the small boys was covered in bandages and Neil sat down next to him.  The boy’s dark eyes were huge as he took in all of Neil’s scars.  He reached a tentative finger out and Neil bent his head so the boy could brush a finger over the burn marks on his cheek.  There came the clicking of camera shutters and Andrew looked daggers at the reporters but they didn’t even notice him, too fixated on the sight in front of them.  
  
“I got burned too,” the boy said quietly.  
  
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Neil replied, opening the boy’s ice cream and handing it to him.   
  
“You play sports?”  
  
Neil nodded.  “Exy.”  
  
“I like baseball,” the boy said around a spoonful of ice cream.  
  
“I’m sorry to hear that too,” Neil said solemnly.  The boy giggled, then sobered.  He leaned in closer, and Neil mirrored him.  
  
“Did you cry?” the boy stage whispered, loudly enough that everyone heard him.  “When you got burned?”  
  
“Yes, I did,” Neil whispered back.  “I couldn’t help it.”  A woman near Andrew sighed.  
  
“Me too.”  
  
“It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone.”  A cluster of sighs echoed from the watchers.  Neil looked up then, eyes suddenly sharp, daring the reporters to divulge the boy’s secret.  He saw Andrew and his face sparked; a familiar pain lanced through Andrew’s chest at the sight.    
  
“I’m filing for divorce,” Andrew announced, making all the reporters jump and Neil laugh.    
  
“Is that Andrew Minyard?” somebody muttered as Andrew pushed through the crowd to join Neil.  There was an eruption of noise and reporters began shoving at them, pulling out microphones.  Andrew whipped around and silenced them all with a scowl before dropping his hand on Neil’s shoulder.  Neil reached around with his left hand to lace his fingers with Andrew’s, the plain bands they had selected all those months ago on display and Neil’s thousand-watt grin lighting up the room.  
  
“Who still needs ice cream?” Andrew asked.    
  
“There are two more rooms still, I think it’s three eighteen and three twenty.  And there’s a girl, Zoya, in three twenty two who would love to meet you.”  
  
Andrew scooped up the bag at Neil’s feet.  The reporters made a path for him, a few following as he went around to the other rooms and chattering at him.  He ignored them all.  A boy in the next room recognized him and begged him for an autograph, which led to him having to borrow a marker from a reporter to sign the little stuffed bunny the kid was clutching.  And the girl, Zoya, nearly cried when Andrew came into her room.    
  
Finally an excessively energetic woman appeared in the doorway, clapping her hands.  “Time for the athletes to go!  Thank the nice men for visiting.”  
  
Andrew thought about refusing to leave just to be contrary, but he could see Neil waiting in the hall.  “How the fuck did that happen?” Andrew asked once they were away from the rooms and reporters.  
  
“I was following the signs towards Dan’s room and stumbled into it.  Some woman recognized me and decided I was there for athlete’s day, or whatever the hell that was.  Then the girls wanted the ice cream I’d gotten for me and Matt, and the other girls wanted ice cream too…”  He shrugged helplessly.  
  
Andrew stopped walking and tugged Neil down for a kiss.  “You’re impossible.”  He brushed gentle fingers over Neil’s scars.  
  
“I know.”  They headed back towards Dan’s room, arms touching.  
  
“And you owe me for this.”  
  
“I know that too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this small diversion! Comments greatly appreciated! As always, HMU at my Tumblr @fuzzballsheltiepants.


End file.
